Phoenix administration is preparing tougher penalties for lawbreakers who use illegal fireworks and pose widespread threats ranging from fires and air pollution to the mental health of some veterans and others.<\/p>\n
The disclosure by Assistant City Manager Lori Bays came during a City Council Public\u00a0 Safety and Justice Subcommittee meeting that partly looked at the results of a stepped up media campaign and police response to fireworks complaints.<\/p>\n
And tougher penalties can\u2019t come soon enough, according to Councilwoman Ann O\u2019Brien and Councilman Jim Waring, who warned that a public education campaign alone is insufficient to deter dangerous behavior that continues to disrupt neighborhoods and threaten public safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of our next steps is to provide the council with some potential amendments to the code to strengthen our position as it relates to enforcement of these issues,\u201d Bay told the subcommittee.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Promising that at some unspecified time, the administration would give the panel and then the full council some recommended changes, Bay said:<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things that we\u2019re actually looking at there are those penalties, and can we emphasize the importance of these codes and penalties in order to make those very points to the community \u2013 that this is important, and if you are going to break these laws, then there are going to be significant consequences for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Subcommittee members pressed city staff on whether tougher enforcement tools are needed to reduce illegal fireworks activity, particularly during the Fourth of July and New Year\u2019s holidays.<\/p>\n
While state law allows the use of sparklers and related items around some holidays, it forbids any aerial explosives.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Several members emphasized that while outreach and inspections have reduced incidents, illegal fireworks remain a persistent problem across the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really think probably tougher penalties and more officers out in the field is probably the answer,\u201d Councilman Jim Waring said, arguing that messaging campaigns may not reach those most likely to break the law.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaking examples out of fools who are doing that is probably the way to go,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien was shocked when she asked how businesses that sell them are treated and whether their contraband is confiscated, noting a report said some were confiscated but some were removed from shelves and returned to legal out-of-state distributors.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow did you discern when you were going to confiscate them versus return them?\u201d O\u2019Brien asked.<\/p>\n
Patton replied, \u201cWe did not confiscate any this last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRather than confiscating that, we have them removed from the sales floor, isolated in the back room, and either send it back immediately, or it goes back with their product that\u2019s unsold by state law to ensure we get off the sales floor,\u201d Patton added.<\/p>\n
Stating \u201cI don\u2019t necessarily want to punish our retailers for mistakes that are someone else\u2019s mistakes\u201d \u2013 namely a distributor that sends illegal fireworks to store \u2013 O\u2019Brien at the same time thought the city needs a better way of tracking repeat offenders.<\/p>\n
Depending on whether a merchant is handed a civil or criminal citation, sales of illegal fireworks can carry a fine of $500 to $2,500 or up to six months in jail.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Fireworks calls for service increased significantly last July 4. <\/p>\n
(City of Phoenix)<\/p>\n
Last year the city inspected over 600 fireworks sales sites, including 176 unannounced inspections at newly identified locations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also want to know how do we make those who don\u2019t want to play by the rules pay the price?\u201d O\u2019Brien asked. \u201cBecause it is making our community pay a price.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur community members are up all night, or, God forbid, have tragedies occur because of others. The air quality is a whole other conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) reported last year that on Jan. 1, 2025, air monitors that day in west Phoenix recorded the highest 24-hour fine particulate matter concentration in the United States and the third highest worldwide.<\/p>\n
City officials said they are seeing positive results from the Fireworks Safety Task Force, an interdepartmental group formed after a sharp increase in fireworks-related complaints to council offices and spikes in police and fire calls during holiday periods.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The task force includes staff from the City Manager\u2019s Office, Police and Fire departments, the City Prosecutor\u2019s Office, Communications Office, and several other departments.<\/p>\n
Assistant Fire Chief Justin Alexander told the subcommittee the task force\u2019s mission is to \u201cprotect public safety, reduce nuisances and enhance health by reducing and ultimately eliminating aerial, illegal fireworks within city limits,\u201d while working within the constraints of state law, which limits local authority over fireworks use during certain dates.<\/p>\n
State law preemption remains a major challenge.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Assistant Fire Marshal Eric Williams explained that while Phoenix\u2019s fire code prohibits consumer fireworks, state statutes allow certain ground-based fireworks during designated periods, restricting how aggressively the city can enforce violations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to do as a task force is look for ways to leverage, especially our enforcement, our inspections, and all of our activities to try and reduce those amounts,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n
Over the past year, the task force expanded inspections of fireworks vendors, conducting more than 600 point-of-sale checks at stores and tents, including unannounced inspections at newly identified locations.<\/p>\n
Fire Prevention staff also conducted post-holiday inspections to ensure fireworks were removed once legal sales periods expired.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Police officials reported that each precinct deployed dedicated fireworks enforcement teams during recent holidays, supported by a new radio code that improved tracking of fireworks-related calls.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Community Action Officers conducted outreach in neighborhoods with historically high call volumes, while a citywide \u201cCelebrate Safely\u201d campaign delivered bilingual messaging about fireworks laws, safety risks, air quality impacts and reporting procedures.<\/p>\n
Waring said he appreciated the difficulty enforcing fireworks laws, noting, \u201cWe got 5,000 miles of streets. It\u2019s a lot of area for you guys to cover.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phoenix Police dedicate two-officers in each precinct to investigate complaints about illegal fireworks during the July 4th and New Year\u2019s periods. As a result, officers made 3,000 contacts with residents.<\/p>\n
Stating \u201cwe are committed to enforcing existing fire code provisions that regulate the sale possession and use of fireworks\u201d and that \u201censuring the public safety remains our highest priority,\u201d Bay stressed that education is an important part of curbing illegal fireworks use.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are working to inform residents about the laws in place and the very real risks associated with aerial fireworks. We also know that holiday,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Fire officials also said that there are dangers even in ground-based fireworks that are permitted by law, citing the MAG report on air pollution.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can help folks understand the repercussions of even the ground based fireworks, I think that that\u2019s something that we hope that the community will respond to, and hopefully we can lessen the use of even the ground-based fireworks,\u201d Williams said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Phoenix administration is preparing tougher penalties for lawbreakers who use illegal fireworks and pose widespread threats ranging from…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":591311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,211949,5643,1587,253940,1589,78288,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-591310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix","tag-america","tag-ann-o","tag-arizona","tag-az","tag-lori-bays","tag-phoenix","tag-phoenix-city-council","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116073624091200642","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}